No Evidence of ‘Credible Threat’ to Bergdahl: Feinstein

By Kathleen Hunter -
Jun 7, 2014

The Senate Intelligence Committee
chairwoman said she’s not convinced there was a “credible
threat” against the life of freed Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl
that motivated the White House to keep its plans secret.

“I don’t think there was a credible threat,” U.S. Senator
Dianne Feinstein said in an interview yesterday for Bloomberg
Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing this
weekend. “I have no information that there was.”

Senators were told at a June 4 classified briefing that
President Barack Obama’s administration had received indications
that Bergdahl’s life could be jeopardized if the detainee
exchange proceedings were disclosed or derailed, according to a
government official who sought anonymity.

Feinstein, a California Democrat, is among lawmakers who
criticized the administration’s decision not to adhere to a law
requiring 30 days’ notice to Congress before releasing detainees
from the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba. Prisoners from wars
following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are held there.

Bergdahl, the last remaining U.S. prisoner of war in
Afghanistan, was handed to U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan on
May 31 in exchange for five Guantanamo detainees.

Feinstein said it was difficult for her to tell, based on
the information she’s been provided, whether Bergdahl’s health
had deteriorated to the point where his life was in serious
danger without an immediate release.

‘No Question’

“There’s no question he was debilitated,” she said.
“There was no question he was under stress -- blinking rapidly,
probably held in dark surroundings for a long period of time.”

“But he’ll receive very good care and recover, and I think
that’s what’s important,” she added.

Officials at the June 4 briefing showed senators a video of
Bergdahl in Taliban custody, provided by that group, said
several senators who attended.

Administration officials on June 2 called Feinstein and
Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, the Intelligence panel’s top
Republican, to apologize for not alerting them before the
prisoner trade, according to the two lawmakers.

Feinstein said the evidence was “mixed” as to whether
Bergdahl was, as some military members have claimed, a deserter.

Sandy Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, made “crystal clear” during this week’s classified
briefing that Bergdahl “was going to have justice, that the
army was going to do the appropriate investigation, and the
facts eventually will come out,” she said.

Few Choices

Feinstein said there were few other choices for securing
Bergdahl’s return. In previous conversations with administration
officials, it was never an active option to seek to rescue
Bergdahl rather than persuade his captors to hand him over.

“That was never discussed,” she said. “It was never
discussed back in 2011, 2012.”

The prisoner exchange illustrates the challenges inherent
in efforts to close Guantanamo, said Feinstein, who, like Obama,
wants to see the facility shuttered.

“They’ve been held for approximately 12 years, which is a
long time. And this is the problem with Guantanamo,” Feinstein
said. “It’s the kind of circumstance that’s going to take a
human being and either harden him or crush him, in my view.”

Prosecuting Detainees

Feinstein said she didn’t know whether there was the
necessary evidence to prosecute the five released detainees in a
civilian court.

“I am of the view that, if there is, people should be
prosecuted,” she said. “If there isn’t, people are released at
the end of the war.”

Feinstein added that transferring detainees to maximum-security prisons in the U.S. could be an alternative to
Guantanamo.

“We have hundreds of people who have either helped or
committed acts of terror in those prisons,” Feinstein said.
“No one has ever escaped.”

The five released Taliban were transferred to Qatar, where
they are to be monitored for a year by local authorities. A
number of Republican lawmakers who criticized the prisoner swap
predicted the five will resume fighting against the U.S.

Obama again defended his decision to carry out the exchange
for Bergdahl, saying in an interview with NBC News broadcast
last night that, “I would do it again.”

‘Delicate Situation’

He said Congress didn’t get more advance notification
because “we had to act fast in a delicate situation that
required no publicity.”

“It was a difficult piece of business because of the fact
that you’re dealing with an untrustworthy adversary, not a
normal state actor,” Obama said in the NBC interview, recorded
yesterday while the president was in France for D-Day
commemorations. “And we saw an opportunity and we took it.”

Obama said that while the freeing of Taliban detainees in
this case dealt only with the exchange for Bergdahl, the U.S.
will have to contend with more releases as the war in
Afghanistan comes to a close.

“By definition, if we, in fact, are ending a war -- then
there’s going to be a process in which some of those individuals
are going to be released,” Obama said in the interview.